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RPlog:Forcing A Gem of Knowledge
---- The Trader's Envy hangs in space like a speck against the vast backdrop of space, its engines idle and its systems running smoothly. It lay on the outskirts of the Corellian system, a hyperspace jump brought it there several days ago... Tyy'sun has been doing business from the cockpit of the craft, making long distance com transmissions, and generally making plans. his captive, Jedi Padawan Ai'kani resides in the cargo area of the craft, bound, gaged much of the time - out of the way - she has been sentenced to death, and yet - it has not yet come to her. Eson has not spent much time giving the woman much attention, but he has seen to her basic needs - food, water and allowed her a bath. This day, however, brings a new view to the Padawan - she has been moved to the aft section of the ship, and bound straightly to a crash chair. the stars twinkle brightly from the viewports visible from her location - but it is impossible to tell exactly where they are. A swish from the cockpit hallway and the portal opens, revieling Tyy'sun, data pad in hand. The Twi'lek walks into the room, his boots clicking on the durasteel grid that is the ship's flooring - gazing at the datapad. Days have passed... haven't they? How long as it been since she's seen the sanctuary of the Basilica. Have Luke and the others been looking for her? Or have they given up on her existence? She has since been moves to the chair and bound; her eyes looking at the stars in the viewport. Much as she has done before, the woman hasn't spoken much; keeping her contemplations within her mind. The black robes adoring her body seem to grow heavier ever day. Or perhaps she is growing weaker. Her arms are fatigued from such little use over her time in captivity and her mind is starting to hallucinate from the lack of proper nutrition. Around her, she can see the Force spiraling around her like hands reaching out to save her or perhaps to take her away. Like a fog, the vision grows thicker with each passing hour and the acceptance of her own death starts to bury deep into her thoughts. In the cargo bay, she can be heard singing gently to herself; a soft and sullen tune expressing, not fear, but a sad acceptance. As she does, the white-haired woman can see images dancing in front of her. An older woman and a younger man. Is the Force telling her something? Are they waiting for her? "If you lost in your way, deep in an awesome story. Don't be in doubt and stray. Cling to your lonesome folly. Now, you are close to the pain. Let all the rain go further. Come back and kiss me in vain. Mother, oh, do not bother..." Tyy'sun had been listening on some of those occasions, from the cockpit - a small intercom system had long ago been installed in there. Her sad songs had given him some insight into the woman. She has been his enemy, true - yet also, his muse - his inspiration to reach higher (in some persepctive - reach lower).. her inner pain was evident, he conflict obvious.. yet she was strong in the face of adversity. It was apparent adversity was not a new thing to Ai'kani - and though Tyy'sun's history is not much different in terms of struggle and pain - he still found himself learning something from her. Between the hours of mulling over business data, arranging meetings, relocating assets and assigning missions to his many agents, Tyy'sun has contemplated not only Ai'kani - but the newfound sence of capacity he seems to to have inherited since the coma. It may be that even in Ai'kani's near delerious state of mind, she has been able to sense through the Force the meditations of Tyy'sun in the cockpit, spice enduced - yet purposeful.. she may have realized that he is attempting to understand the Force, attempting to interact withit - and she may also realize that while his efforts have been suprisingly fruitful for such a novice - ultimately he is ignorant, and unable to control the sucess or failure of his attempts. He does not say anything to the woman as he stands in the center of the room.. instead he continues clicking away at the datapad.. the busy Twi'lek has been like this for hours - pacing the ship, apearing somethings, then dissapearing onto the cockpit again - always with the datapad.. always with alot on his mind. Her eyes seem to be distance; watching the two silhouetted figures in front of her as her lonesome song continues to pass from her throat. "Hear the chorus of pain. Taking you back to proper ways. It's so easy yo find. If you could remind me...." The entrance of Tyy'sun seems to shift the Force and suddenly, the currents swirling around her divert. Strands of the airy enigma are pulled like smoke towards Tyy'sun and the flown begins to churn between the two of them. Ai'kani's eyes lift from their daze towards the twi'lek; the two figures in front of her starting to fade away. "Now, you are lost in your way. Deep in an awesome story. So, I will find you again. Kiss you for lonesome folly...." The images dissipate into the flow of the Force and as her mind is brought back from her hazy meditation, the swirls of the Force's current start to become invisable again. Felt... but invisable. Her voice fades into silence and she watches Tyy'sun in a staggering contemplation. The Twi'lek looks up from his datapad, and to the woman as she gazes at him. The Force is not something he is greatly aquainted with - its subtle ebb and flow are yet beyond his casual perceptions.. only with the aid of spice, a tone generator tuned to the resonant frquency of his own skull and hours of meditations and attempts has he been able to percept the slightest presence.. these items he currantly keeps within the cockpit of the Envy. He gazes at her shallowly for a moment, as though really thinking about something else, but then his attention focuses plainly on the woman, "How lovely you look in your own fatigue, dressed in that death shroud, my friend." he says. "Beauty comes in many forms," waifs the reply. Even her voice sounds tired and worn. Shoulders pulled downward by the gravity and her back arched almost painfully. "In the eye of the beholder," she adds on with a slight nod. Even as they fade, she can see the smoke-like spiral churning around the man and though he may not be able to feel it; she can. "Have your meditations found you any answers," Ai'kani challenges. Though her body and even tone are weak, her words have their own power in them. "Those things you feel. The things you see when the spice if flowing. What do you think that is?" Tyy'sun's slight suprise at her insights is evident by the writhing of tatooed lekku around his bare shoulders, "Until I met you I thought it simply the spice.. " he answers honestly, "though why non of the other users spoke of such experiences as winessing an energy field around them I coulnt say.. until you. until the Jedi, and until the truth of dark beings with great powers was revealed." he places the datapad back into his satchel. His eyes shine, his gait is strong. "Now I know it to be the Force. I believe it is within my grasp - you lied when you claimed others could percieve it - you wish to monopolize the secrets for your own." "I did not lie. The Force is not something you can acquire through selfishness and greed. You cannot seek it out and take it as you like it. The Force is born within you before you step into existence." Her eyes glance away. "But you believe what you want. The Force has been awakened in you, but never did I say others could not preceive it. It is, however, rare though there will always be those touched with that gift. I am sorry to see that the necessary balance has chosen you, but our passing was not mere coincidence." Tyy'sun nods darkly at this, "Then there is meaning after all.. " he steps towards Ai'kani, boots clicking, "My awakened gift is justice." he declairs, "A sign that my hard work to attain a higher position in this galaxy has not been for a simple tantrum, as your Joh would have me believe - has not been becuase I am evil, and lost, as you have insisted.. my ways are legitimized, and you hate that, dont you.. yet you speak of this nessesary balance." "There is no hate," she says gently and starts repeating it quietly to herself; as if stuck in a loop. Her eyes glance up towards the man with a peaceful gaze. "The Force is neutral. There is no good or evil. It is only what the bearer makes it to be. To use it for gaining of power or rank is a path to the Dark Side. A place where the corrupted are slowly consumed; the Force eating them away slowly as their arrogance and greed consume the person they once was. Blackness... darkness... loneliness and insatiable hunger. That is what awaits you on this path, Tyy'sun." Her eyes glance behind him to another form moving. Larger than the first two and more powerful in stature. "The Force has chosen you to balance me," the woman almost hums in a sing-song manner. "We are so much alike and so different." Tyy'sun contemplates this by turning and pacing the room quietly as she speaks, hands clasped behind his back, and lekku rippling with thought and emotion. It made too much sense, what she is saying - and yet the absurdity is nearly laughable at the same time. Almost subconsciously the Twi'lek raises his hand and feels the smooth metalic plating that is the back of his head as he gazes out at the starts through the viewport. "If what you say is truth - Ai'kani.. then you must not believe that you are to be put to death.. or do you admit that the Force has chosen you as a sacrifise to further this.. dark side." he pauses.. "Or perhaps you will not die at all." he says, almost more to himself than the bound woman, "Perhaps you are here for a different reason than death." She watches him go back and forth slowly. Very slowly; her eyes lethargic to the pacing. "There is no death," she finally says. "We do not die. We come one with the Force. No longer on this plain of existence, but in another place. Becoming a part of everything that makes creation. But those on the Dark path... they are not saved by the life-giving powers. They fade away to another realm never to know peace. That is the awesome power of the Force." However, in all manners, she has accepted her death though not exactly happy about it. "Johanna and I did what we could to save you," Ai'kani adds on. "Perhaps the surge of our efforts directly into you awoken a buried power, but it does not help you understand it, does it?" Tyy'sun turns quickly at that last statement, his lekku flowing around, and he walks towards Ai'kani once again, "Yes.. " he says, a gleam in his eye, "and so you will help me understand, Ai'kani. You will obey the will of the Force, and I will spare your life." there, he had said it - plainly and outright. Fully expecting a scoff from the woman, his adversary, and yet oddly his mentor, he glours at her from his standing position. "Is it not the next logical step?" Ai'kani's hazel eyes raise once again to the man and his demands. Teach him so that he may train himself and become a greater threat? Or perhaps attempt to save him by showing him the light side early on. An opportunity she never had. "And what is it that you want to know, Tyy'sun," she asks. "What answers have you so desperately been seeking that you have realized you can't find out on your own? Do you wish to harness the Force and use it for your own advantage? Or is it wisdom you've sought? An enlightenment?" Tyy'sun looks deeply into Ai'kani's orbs for a moment before turning again, "As you said - I will balance you.. it is the will of the Force.. according to your own understanding, we will both be doing its will - playing out the nessesary drama." he smirks as he turns. "I wish to know how to meditate.. how to train.. I wish to know how to further my grasp of something that eludes me even after hours and hours of focus and concentration." "And you are surprised? You cannot grasp the Force until you first understand what it is," she points out though it's obvious the woman is fighting to keep her physical strength equal to her spiritual. "You must know the Force. How it affects you. Everything. How you can sense it. How you must become one...." Her eyes close gently. "And after all that... should I give you the first stepping stones... then what? You will destroy me?" "Who can say.. " Tyy'sun mutters in response, "At this stage, I admit - my ability to foresee what will come from one moment to the next is not as accurate as I might have claimed a month ago. My goals are my own - I am what I am, Ai'kani - and I shall continue to be good at it.. " he looks at the bound woman, drinking in her helplessness - how he longed to see her in that way before - now that urge is sated somewhat - now he wants something more from her - her cooperation in his games.. but Indren's warning to him echoes in his mind.. 'they will get into your mind, Tyy'sun, already have they damaged your progress'.. but Indren was wrong - he doesnt realize that Eson himself is capable of that which the Jedi posess.. "I have already destroyed you, Ai'kani.. Yejide, the death shroud.. the lyrics of your song are dark - you reside before me haunted, no longer the firey threat you once posed to me in the tunnels of my underworld.. " he approaches her and kneels down, "this chapter is closed - admit it.. let us look to how the FOrce will write us into the galaxy. Let us just see what our future brings." Ai'kani twists her hands slightly; meeting the twi'lek's eyes. "So much confusion within you," she says gently. "You are writhing. Hurting. You are distressed." The padawan leans forward as much as her bounds will let her. "I have been there." Her voice is now a soft whisper. "Those voices. Those images. A burning sun that never sets. Never relinquishes you. Never set you free. This potential power... you feel justified, don't you." Her eyes fall to his Lekku curiously. "You've had your share of pain, so you think. It's your time to make someone else burn in the sun, right? Is that what you want, Tyy'sun? Do you want the Force to lift you to a higher status in your life? To put you above those that have gotten in your way?" Tyy'sun snarls, his hand raising swiftly to hover int he air - only a deep will holds back the cuff that would normally rain down on someone who would dare speak so to him.. its no different than when they first met - her ability to peer right through his outer crust at the black heart inside - damn her for that.. but the hand does not fall opon her face.. instead it lowers slowly, and the Twi'lek smirks, "As though your own path is so straight and righteous. You would do well to quell that feeble nobility to champion as your saving grace - and join me. But you will never do that.. instead the Force will pit us against one another - will cause us to shape one another, learn from one another - until we embody the separate paths of our fate to its satisfaction." While normally Ai'kani would know if the hand would fly or not, her senses are dull and the Padawan flinches; bracing for the strike. After doing so, she realizes it is not to come and her eyes open again. "What you first must understand is that the Force is neutral. It does not guide our actions so much as our desires are guided. The Force does not choose who is light and who is dark. It is the person's will and intentions. However, there will always be a balance within the Force. The necessary evil. The naive good. The Force... it is everything. The air we breathe. The animals that roam. The rocks. The trees. Our very existence. Even part of this galaxy is made of the Force and gifted with the ability to sense it and the potential to control--" she shakes her head. "No. Not control. To harness the Force. To understand it. To bend and twist it. Thoughts become visable pictures. Emotions become a singing song. Tell me, Tyy'sun, of this never setting sun." For once in their short but intense time together, Tyy'sun shuts his mouth and listens intently.. he stands once more to resume his gaze out of the viewport - to the vast depths beyond - the chocking depths of that vacuum. He refused to feel small before it - though it is but a stuborn notion, that he could in anyway be contrasted to the emensity of the Galaxy, indeed universe itself.. he does not interject - does not even respond to the woman.. he just soaks in everyword, and compares his understanding of the Force to the things she says - extrapolates deeper meanings, attempts to grasp what she says.. and he waits quietly for more.. Getting no response, the woman takes in a deep breath. When it is exhaled, it comes out slow and shaken. Weak. "It takes much meditation to understand the Force and just how awesome it is. We would be nothing without it and yet there are millions who question its existence. Jedi and Sith alike are ridiculed. Hunted. Judged as unnatural beings or merely farces to reality. But we are very much real, Tyy'sun. We are real and mortal. We bleed. We weaken. We die. The Force does not protect us. It does not make us immortal. It does not make us... gods." With that, her eyes raise slowly towards the twi'lek staring out of the view port. "The Force is not a shield. it is not a weapon. It is not a pedastal. It is not power. It is completely and totally unbiased. Its will under the weight of anyone trained enough to use it. To kill. To heal. If you can grasp the Force; feel it in your fingers... know every particle... then you can make it do whatever you wish. If you become a vessal and open yourself up to the flow, the Force will be your alert system." "But how does one train themselves to become this vessal.. " The Twi'lek continues his quiet gaze at the stars outside. Corellia hangs like a tiny ball - a great many miles from their currant position - the vastness of space betraying its great size. And yet Tyy'sun can still make out the occasional glint of starlight off the hulls of the Imperial fleet orbiting that distant world. His attention is focused on Ai'kani's explanations - he wasnt sure if she was misleading him or not - misinforming him purposefully. But for some reasno the crime lord felt she was being forthright. Perhaps she did want to save her own skin. Perhaps she simply isnt one to spread lies at the expense of another being. Regardless, Tyy'sun takes the lesson to heart. "How did your masters teach you to let this Force course through your viens?" Might as well... "In the beginning, my first Master -- my father -- taught me to harness the anger and bitterness that writhed within me. He told me that the Jedi had killed my mother. My father was a Sith. A powerful one that had served in the Clone wars. A ranking Imperial and strong in the Force. He said he saved me from their hands and raised me on the Dark Side... and how I enjoyed it. People feared me and those you didn't.... they died. My father was the driving force behind my trouble adolesence. However, unlike most parents, he encouraged my rage and taught me how to control myself. How to bend the Force to my will. How feeding from my emotions would empower me. Get me everything I wanted." The smile that crosses Tyy'sun's lip at these words is genuine and dark. If Ai'kani could see it, she might be reminded once again by Tyy'sun of her past. So.. he had been wise to embrace his passions and hatred. He recalls the hours before the spice bowl, wafting the substance into the air - his howls of anger, the culmination of many moments of building opon is dread, anger and determination - until it burst forth from his lungs as a howl the tribes of Ryloth's sunside would have cringed at, had they heard it issued from beyond a dune, or echoes through the halls of their caves. "And you were powerful indeed.." he comments, "As the never setting sun, you baked the Galaxy in your warth and determination." "Indeed, I did," she answers. "But I was a fool. Blinded by the lies I wanted so badly to be truth." Her eyes are locked on the twi'lek; narrowing slightly. "As the Dark Side consumed me year by year, I grew more and more ignorant. I was pleased where I was. Everyone would know my pain. Everyone would feel what I endured. Everyone will be taken to that underworld in my wake." Ai'kani gives a gentle shake of her head. "But I was a fool," she repeats. "It was all lies. Falsities. I thought I had found all my answers when I had only turned away from the truth. The seduction of power proved more enticing than my desire to understand anything. I just wanted to lash out. To become a being higher. But it's impossible. You cannot be higher and you become nothing without understanding." Behind her back, the woman's hands ball into tight fists. "My father... was not my father. My mother died at /his/ hands. Not the Jedi. I was being used. Lied to my entire life." A revelation hits the Twi'lek at that moment, and his thoughts flow to Yejide - his taking of her, Ai'kani's dark reaction to his attempts to adopt her - he knew he would hurt Ai'kani by taking the child, but now he knew beyond a shred of doubt just why it hurt the Padawan. As any fool, he is inwardly pleased with himself at being so insightfully clever without even understanding the true power behind his action - and like any fool, this line of thought washes the only hope the being ever had to save himself - the golden nugget of Ai'kani's words is lost.. To Ai'kani, Yejide is like herself, Eson like Ai'kani's supposed father - she would give her life to see Yejide free of the same lies that Ai'kani once endured - what sweet, ironic and tragic bliss it all was to the crime lord. Tyy'sun Eson turns to look at the woman, "Impressive.." he says. It is only a matter of time before Ai'kani realizes she is going to live - and quests for Yejide again, so the strategic mind of Tyy'sun plays the card first, "I pose an exchange.. the child, for your training - the training of this dark fiend you once called father.. a life, for a life.. " bold. Too bold? He will soon find out via her response. Her eyes narrow. Save Yejide in exchange for training this monster to cause more harm to others? There has to be a better deal. "I have put the path of the Dark Side behind me," she warns. "Every day of my life is spent taking another step away from it. The night in the tunnel, I reverted. I had fought against the Dark Side for so long and was not ready for so much stress on my willpower. For that, you nearly died and to rectify myself, I risked my own life to save yours. Once you are in the Dark Side, it is very hard to get out." Trying to sit up, Ai'kani leans against the hull behind her. "Even when I realized the truth, it only fueled my rage more. I was almost lost forever in the abyss." Prattle, she wants so desperately to believ she was almost lost, when in reality she just had a different 'itch' at heart. This is Tyy'sun's reasoning anyways - truth or not - his hungers for the dark path - it is no struggle for him to decide where he will benefit most. "And yet it was the darkside that brough you to this point.. showed itself the moment you realized the truth about Yejide. Showed itself as the weapon you will utilize to save her. A fitting victory over the dark side - that you use it to prevent the same tragedy it rained opon your life durring your adult years as a Jedi.. " Tyy'sun strides across the floor, towards Ai'kani - and perhaps to her complete suprise, begins to release her from her bonds. "You will train me, and Yejide shall return to the Basilica unharmed - and we shall depart ways.. I to my doom, as you have forseen - and you to your comfort and righteous blinders, as I have foreseen." Ai'kani watches rather weakly as the man begins to unbind her. She already knows that she will not be teaching this man anything. The question being what he plans to do when she outwardly refuses. However, that can wait until she's at least free. For now, she swallows the urge to make it clear she will be doing no such thing and merely says. "I am only a student. I do not know enough to properly train myself let alone someone else." Once Ai'kani is freed Tyy'sun turns and approaches a panel on the side of the ship's bulkhead.. opening this he pulls out a tray from within and rips a plaster mold from the top. The smell of bantha meat, bread and other sustaining edibles churns amidst the stale air of the frieghter life support system. The tray is tossed to the floor at Ai'kani's feet, some of the broth spilling over the edge of a bowl, but otherwise the array remains intact, "I do not require a master's program.. only the very basics - you will teach me to train on my own, if I must - you will give me that which I need to move forward.. and we will start today." he watches the woman, "And if you attempt to attack me, or otherwise gain control of this ship - the girl dies.." he raises a comlink from his satchel to his lips, "Post 5-8-3, Eson here - you will recieve a check in from my via my private comstation aboard the Trader's envy every hour - or the child's life is forfiet. understood?" once the affirmative is issued, Tyy tosses the comlink to the floor, and sumarily crushes it with his boot.. he turns back to the viewport then, leaving Ai'kani to the meal she would need to regain her strength. Ai'kani's arms fall to her sides weakly. She tries to test her weight under her legs now that they are feet, as well, but she quickly falls back to the chair. It's no use... it would take a while before she could stand again. Glancing to the food, Ai'kani could feel the hungry burning her stomach... but she has no desire to eat. Instead, her eyes go to the shattered pieces of the comlink before she just laughs. "You are well on your way to the Dark Side, but you are too ignorant to be taught right now." Again, she laughs and leans back in her seat. "Too ignorant. Too stubborn. Even a Sith must know patience and self control. Even a Sith knows that not everything can be forced. If you've learned nothing from anything I've said so far, then you are not ready to open up and truly understand." And yet she was teaching him with every word that comes from her lips.. every hint about the nature of the Jedi, the nature of the Sith, about becoming one - a vessal - of the Force, of allowing its natural course, instead of straining against it - he was learning indeed - but he would give her incentive to cooperate. "You assume too much, Ai'kani.. and perhaps I do as well - but we are here, and I dont see what other course there is. I'll have my knowledge one way or the other - here you have control, you have an influence in what I know, and what I find - if you refuse, then perhaps I will be forced to capture other, more willing to reason Jedi - or ransack that musuem of your in the Basilica.. " "Spoken like a villian, but not a Sith," she replies. "Use your head. Do you really think you can charge the Basilica and win? Sure. You're hiding on this ship. You can fly away. You must think that the Basilica is just a healthy, immobile target, but you're making the same mistake you made in the tunnel. You don't know your enemy. You think your petty desires will get you everything. That all will just fall into place. But Jedi roam those halls and the surrounding area. We are connected in the Force. Your intentions would burn like a flame in the darkness; like a beacon that would lead them all to you. You just do not understand and yet you want to skip steps and leap right into what you want to hear. You will fail as a Sith and your life will end prematuraly for your brashness." Tyy'sun sighs. His initial anger at her subsides with the realization that even these words may be valuable training. He notes the time.. the new potential he was meeting would be ready for him at the starport - this would have to wait.. Tyy'sun stalks Ai'kani, and rebinds her hand above her head to the bulkhead, "I have business to attend to, and I am confident you will not impede the process." he stoops to fasten her ankles together as well for good measure, "Once this business is attended to, we shall resume our... discussion." with that he turns and stalks towards the portal leading to the cockpit tunnel - he secretively inputs the security code and the door swishes open.. The click's of Tyy's boots echo down the cooridor as he dissapears int the cockpit. The woman grunts gently as the man rebinds her hands. This time above her head. Well, this can definitely work. "Of course," she bites out as if spitting out venom. When the twi'lek disappears, Ai'kani sets on her own goal. Regaining her muscle's strength. Figuring she had some time, the woman begins alternating between rolling her shoulders and flexing the muscles in her arms and then to putting weight under her feet and relaxing again. A bit more... a bit more... perhaps with enough time, she will regain a notable amount of her strength back. The stars outside suddenly begin sliding by as the ship shifts into gear - the engines howling to life.. the Trader's Envy is on the move.. '' From the atmosphere comes the image of a bulky YT-1300 frieghter, its aft section aglow from the flames of its own thruster engines. It careens through the atmosphere at an alarming rate, but slowly decreases in speed as it begins a steady approach to the massive Corellian Starport.''